UI/UX Branding: A Key Player In Creating Your Product Identity

 "People ignore design that ignores people."

Isn’t that right? Good design is all about prioritizing users. Your idea or product that is not 'putting the user first' will ultimately fail. You can develop the most innovative application or website, but if it isn’t considering the user’s need or lacks user-friendliness, it simply will not have the success that you have envisioned. UI/UX branding is not just about making things look pretty but it goes much further than that. 

UX or user experience design is a calculated process that tells us about ‘how users feel’ when they interact with your brand, what motivates them, the challenges they face, and their complete user journey; Usability, in short.

After a negative user experience, 88% of online buyers say they will not return to a website. So, keep your hands off Adobe until you have a clear idea of what your users are looking for. Products like the iPhone would not have become successful if they lacked a great UI/UX design. Just saying!

Speaking of UI design or user interface, it is all about creating a visual brand identity using different typography, color palettes, images, icons, buttons, and animations. Users form 75% of their judgment of a website's credibility purely on its aesthetics. Therefore, UI elements delight the user aesthetically. With that being said, both UI and UX design are related and go hand in hand but no, they are not the same thing. 

Did you know how UI/UX design plays an important role in branding? Explore our insightful blogs on UI/UX

Difference Between UX and UI

In a nutshell, good UI/UX branding is everything you need to create an optimal and exceptional digital experience.

Recommended: Creativity on the Rise: The Importance of UI/UX Design

Fascinating History of User Experience 

The term ‘user experience’ was coined back in 1995 by a cognitive  psychologist and designer Don Norman. He was the first person to have UX in his job title  when he joined the team at Apple. According to him, “I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow: I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with a Industrial design, graphics, the interface, physical interaction, and the manual are all part of the system.”

Interestingly, the origins of UX can be traced back to Ancient Greece but fast-forwarding to a few thousand years skipping Taylorism, and Toyota's human-centered production system; Henry Dreyfuss - American Industrial Engineer is considered a pioneer in the history of UX design. He is known for improving the usability of some of the most quintessential consumer products back in the 1950s such as the Hoover vacuum cleaner, and the tabletop telephone. He also wrote a book ‘Designing for People’, explaining UX design. 

Additionally, Walt Disney is the most obvious candidate of the first UX designers in history - as it has always been dedicated to providing magical and immersive experiences. But it all comes down to Apple - undoubtedly, a true innovator of user experience, from the original Macintosh to the iPhone in 2007. 

Role of UI/UX in Branding

Design plays a significant role in building a brand identity. People remember and associate brands with logos, colors, fonts, and design patterns. We are living in a digital age, therefore, having an online presence is important for gaining a competitive edge. When it comes to website or mobile app design, creative UI/UX is a mammoth, meaning it's of great importance. But you get that right? Mammoths are huge and so are the UX/UI design styles. Anyway.

Whether you are selling custom shoes online or tacos, you need to differentiate your offerings from that of the competition in the market. The process of distinguishing your brand is called branding, which ensures that you stand out from the crowd by offering exceptional user experience and website design. The most effective way of UI/UX design and branding is to understand your brand first. 

For example, We all love fried chicken and when we think about fried chicken, What comes to mind? KFC, for obvious reasons - one of the largest fast-food chains in the world. Their trademark logo, Colonel Sanders, and punchline, ‘Finger-lickin' Good’ is enough to remind people of the smell of crispy fried chicken but is the logo the only thing that people associate with? No.

Apart from visuals, the brand includes the overall user interaction and experience. UX is key to branding and brand identity is inseparable from the brand experience.

The role of UI/UX design in branding is straightforward; create clean and convenient user interface design that reflects product qualities for seamless customer experience. But 'excess of everything is bad’, do not overdo your design, because crowded designs negatively impact the UX. 

Recommended: UI VS UX DESIGN – A QUICK COMPARISON

Role of Branding in UI Design

Let your brand decide the user interface design. Because having a clear idea about the brand can facilitate UI designers to choose professional branding components such as its color palette, shapes, types and fonts, illustration and icons, that support and complement the branding concept. Keep the following steps in mind before your UI design process:

• Do proper research
• Critically analyze your competition
• Know your target audience
• Explore the best UI design trends in the market
• Skim through the best user interface design examples leading the industry

If you don’t have the extensive knowledge or expertise needed for creating refined and clear mobile app UIs or websites, outsourcing UI/UX design services is a step in the right direction. Hiring UI designers is a cost-effective approach especially useful for startups who lack the resources or budget to afford UI/UX branding. Plus, inexperienced businesses can make a hot mess by not knowing about the right tools to get the branding right.

Contributing Factors in UI/UX Branding

Branding includes a set of visual elements such as shape, dimensions, color or sound are all the contributing factors that make products memorable. People perceive visuals much faster than listening or even reading. According to UX, UI should reflect brand values and qualities through every illustration and interaction. Below are the contributing factors for effective UI/UX development:

UI or User Interface

Typography

Content is a significant ingredient of a website. The product’s credibility does depend on its' content but also on how you visually represent it. Fonts have personalities of their own; some appeal to your brand some don’t such as the san serif font; old but approachable and can flatter you.

Color Palette

Colors impact people’s emotions such as Red is for love and passion, orange is energetic and happy, yellow specifies deceit, blue is for trust, etc., and therefore, careful consideration is necessary when choosing a color scheme. Some biggest giants like Dell, Facebook, HP, and Intel are using blue in their logos to create a brand identity.

Your web app UI design should also consider ‘designing for accessibility', to cater to those who are color blind and hence, support readability. Accessibility reminds me of a quote by Billy Gregory a Senior Accessibility Engineer at the Paciello group, “When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… SUX?”

Micro-Interactions

They are small animations but significant. These tiny interactions guide and keep the users engaged and hold the power to enhance the user experience and brand identity. Whenever I think of micro animations, I think of Invision and Stripe. Because they have exciting animations that leave a striking impression due to their eye-catching properties.

Additionally, they can entice users and draw their attention to exactly where you want them to be. But they should be subtle and not overbearing.  

Visuals

Images grab the user’s attention immediately. Instead of using random images, choose images that tell a significant story. Stock images are easy to use but they don’t usually convey the meaning, therefore, custom brand imagery in your web app UI design delivers a fine narrative consistent with the brand image. You can even use AI to create images that perfectly match your brand's style, ensuring consistency across all your visuals and marketing materials.

UX or User Experience

Wireframes

Wireframing is mostly used by junior/ senior UX designers. It is an outline of the original mobile or web application that shows a rough view of how the application will look including the page structure, layout, functionality, information architecture, and user flow. Since wireframes only represent the concept, therefore, UI branding is not important during this stage. The interface is built after the wireframes are finalized by major stakeholders.

Navigation

Have you ever visited a website and completely got lost not knowing where to go from here? Yep, that has happened to me many times. Navigation is the most important and powerful part of your entire application or interface because a poorly planned navigational structure can result in high customer drop-off rates. After all, no one wants to waste time scrolling through unstructured websites.

Whereas seamless navigation helps users quickly navigate through the entire website. It represents how users interact with your products and draws a path for users to swiftly go from point A to point B. 

Prototyping

Application prototypes are not the final version but they help UI/UX graphic designers to show how the final product will look, feel, and function for feedback. Stakeholders can highlight areas that need improvement before the final rollout, which saves company both the time and money. UI/UX experts can use third-party tools for prototyping such as Invision. 

UI/UX Design Process

InvoZone has its own dedicated step-by-step UI/UX design process for delivering remarkable results. Our UI/UX web design involves design research, wireframing, visualization for UI/UX branding, prototyping, and review.

Why Should You Choose Us?

InvoZone provides leading UI/UX design and development services. You can hire project-based UI/UX designers on an hourly basis. Building a large-scale project? Then our dedicated team structure will suit you the best.

Our contemporary UI/UX design services will help you in creating a robust visual identity for a lasting impression on customers and business growth. Besides, we focus on every aspect of branding and UX. 

So, let’s chat over a virtual cup of coffee, shall we?